Ms Patricia King:

On the issue of market diversification, while a number of scenarios could arise, we could end up with companies taking the advice and perhaps being given subvention to help to diversify market-wise, with the result that they receive Government money to diversify and end up taking the jobs somewhere else. That would be just one of the consequences of this.

Our judgment as regards the whole-of-Government approach is that we would like this to take place in the round. Brexit is of such importance and will encompass so many areas of Irish life that a whole-of-Government approach must be taken. To date, we took part in meetings held in the Department of the Taoiseach to plan for Brexit, in other words, they were held before the date of the referendum outcome. Since then, I believe we have taken part in one meeting in the Department of the Taoiseach and we have not been engaged in any more in-depth discussions elsewhere, nor have we been invited to any such discussions. If I was asked whether such discussions are taking place, we suspect they are taking place and we probably even hope they are taking place. We do not know where or with whom, however. The trade union movement has a major role to play in this matter and it is a negative that the Government is not engaging with us on it.